Middletown transcript., 1887-04-14
The Delaware Peach.

A correspondent writing from Wilmington
to the Philadelphia Times under date ofApril
i, gives the following interesting review of
t the Delaware peach:
Peninsula peach buds, wrapped up warm
and deceived by no false hints of spring,
have passed safely through the equinox, md
if the late frosts and the June fall spare them
there will be one of the heaviest crops of
fruit known since Isaac Reeves, of Delaware
City, became the pioneer peach grower Of the
peninsula more than fifty years ago. The
United States Government has lately set up
nest of batteries upon the very spot where
Reeves planted his first grated trees in 1882.
His SON Clement, now resident of Delaware
City, has lived to see the peach industry be-
come the chief farming interest of that re-
gion and then die out to reappear few miles
southwark. Isaac Reeves bought his trees of
nurseryman and among them were about
200 for which no pedigree could be furnished.
The nameless trees were given good place
IN the very first peach orchard planted in
Delaware and they bore excellent fruit. 1t
was called Reeves Favorite and that particu-
lar variety Of peach is still one of the finest on
the peninsula.
Among Mr.. Reeves neighbors were the
Reynolds, the old Major of wide fame, and
his sons Philip, John, William, Clayton,
Anthony and Barney. They and many
others planted peach orchards and in few
years the middle hundreds of New Castle
county were fairly embowered in peach trees.
The early growers became rich and the indus
try spread itself all over the county; down
into Kent. and Sussex and across the border
into the Eastern Shore counties of Maryland.
From ls40 to l845 Delaware City was the
great peach centre, and many thousands of
baskets were shipped thence to Philadelphia
and New York. Twenty years later New
Castle county was still the chief peach grow
ing region, but the centre had shifted ~ffteen
miles southwest to Middletown.
The peach farmers were marvelously pros
porous. They built themselves lovely homes,
they blossomsd out in fine equipages, their
sons went to college and their daughters
dressed as farmers daughters never dressed
before. The stranger who came from among
the hard working, thrifty small farmers of
Lower Pennsylvania and the adjoining hill
country of New Castle County were astonish-
ed at the mode of life among the peach grow
ers. Az income of $50 year from the
peach crop alone was not unusual, and Daniel
Corbit, of Odessa, model Quaker country
gentleman, whose father had been a Phila-
delphia merchant of most enviable reputation,
more than once drew $40, 600 year from bis
orchards.
1t seemed perfectly plain 10 New Castle
county farmers that if two hundred peach
trees could be made to grow and bear upon
an acre of ground the sure way to wealth
was to buy more land and plant more
peaches; Delaware isn't very big and some
sanguine peach growers would have been
glad to own it all. The price of land rose
and when the war came it went higher.
Farmers bought at inflated prices and mort
gagged the land for security. Then came the
period Of contracted currency and the mar
ket price of farms shrank till the land was
scarcely worth its mort cages. To make bad
worse the peach lands of New Castle began to
to fail from exhaustion. Farmers became
bankrupt, peach orchards were pulled up by
the roots and the peach belt took another
shift southwark.
Wyoming, we'll down in Kent county, is
now the centre of the peach region and COM
paratively few peaches, are grown in New
Castle county. The exhausted lands are re-
newing their strength, however, and young
orchards have recently been planted upon
lands occupied for many years past with
other crops.
Meanwhile New Castle county's charming |
country homes, sometimes, to be sure, in the |
hands of strangers, remain TO testify to the |
blessings that the peaches brought, and other |
parts of the peninsula are smiling beneath |
the same good fortune.
The shifting Of the peach belt into Kent
county was like new birth to that region. |
Land doubled in value, immigrants came,
new homes were built, new railway stations !
sprung up, churches and schools were
and host Of skillful mechan-
les, hitherto very scarce in rural Delaware,
ound profitable employment. Sussex county
md the Eastern Shore of Maryland felt the
,hange, and men discovered with delight
hat the despised sandy soil was just the